Environmentalists were becoming increasingly concerned about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest during the 1880s.
A major problem resulting from slash and burn agriculture was the reduction of the planet?s oxygen which contributes to global warming.
Many species of plant and animal life were being destroyed, some before they had even been studied.
Plants from the rainforest have been used to create many of our current therapeutic drugs including antibiotics.
Indigent peoples were disappearing due to exposure to disease and loss of livelihood.
Tens of thousands of square miles of virgin forest were being destroyed by ranchers and the timber industry.
Spills from nearby oil drilling polluted the rivers.
Economic considerations made it difficult to stop rainforest destruction in poverty- stricken countries of the Amazon.
In the early 1990s Brazil, which contains the largest area of Amazon forest, the international community, and some businesses began to take action to save the rainforest.
A forest monitoring system, SIVAM, now provides accurate, widespread information on the Amazon environment and its changes.
The government has halted subsidies to ranchers who were turning forestland into pasture.
Natural preserves have been created.
Extractive reserves have been formed for managed harvesting of timber, rubber, Brazil nuts, and medicinal plants without deforestation.
Accompanying the reserves are projects for education, technical aid, and financing to help people preserve the forest while benefiting from its riches.
Examples of good planning are two companies that have planted tree farms in the Amazon, reforesting while creating a profitable harvest.
